


Childhood Traumas

by CCNSurvivor



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-16
Updated: 2015-03-16
Packaged: 2018-03-18 04:54:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3556802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CCNSurvivor/pseuds/CCNSurvivor
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a little scene that popped into my head after this week's episode (5x14). After talking to Rick about her recent discovery, what if Carol also opens up to Daryl?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Childhood Traumas

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys :)  
> I usually write stories for a completely different fandom but after having this week's episode this little scene popped into my head and needed urgent writing lol If people are interested I might expand on this. Just let me know what you think.

Childhood Traumas 

 

She was waiting for him on the porch of her house, as if she’d known that he’d come and check on her first. The sun hadn’t begun to set yet but the roof cast such a shadow that he shivered as he climbed up the few steps that separated him from her.

“You’re back already…” Carol greeted him with a small, twitchy smile that he hadn’t seen since he had first encountered her.

Something was wrong. She wasn’t the same deeply troubled woman - trapped in a new society that she didn’t trust- he had left behind when he had set off on his run with Aaron. Instead she seemed nervous and unsettled.

“Yes,” he shrugged in an acknowledgment of her words and sank down next to her “are you alright?”

“A boy…Sam…discovered me while I was stealing the guns…” she slowly started, twisting her hands.

Daryl glanced at her, gauging how serious the damage was but she moved on so swiftly that he figured that it couldn’t have been so bad.

“I made sure he wouldn’t talk but for some reason he sought me out again.” She chuckled lightly but without humour. “Keeps clinging to me like a little leech…”

Daryl kept studying her when she fell silent once again, noticing how she wiped the palm of her hand over her neatly pressed trousers and wondered what had made this nervous habit re-appear. Perhaps the little boy’s attention had triggered unwanted memories of Sophia; memories that now clashed with her newfound strong persona. Whatever it was, it made him realise that it was his turn now to encourage her to open up, to let it all out, even though she insisted that she functioned better when she kept it all inside.

“We were making cookies…” she continued in the same thin voice “and he kept pestering me with these questions…as if we were friends and then…then he told me that he breaks things when he gets angry, so I asked him what he gets angry about and he…he dodged the question and asked me instead why I needed the guns. So I told him “To keep safe” and he asked if he could have one as well. I was perplexed…I mean, what would a little boy growing up in such a sheltered environment need a gun for? He doesn’t even realise the extent of what’s going on outside. But there was something about him…about the look he gave me that reminded me of…”

She stopped and this time Daryl was certain she was thinking about Sophia. He let her remain silent for as long as she wanted to and directed his gaze back forward to give her some privacy as well.

“He’s abusing them, Daryl. He’s abusing his wife and Sam. I just know it. So I went up to his door to confront him, I tried to be polite, I smiled but he pushed me away…he was reeking of beer and I just…” she let out a groan of frustration and balled her hand to a fist so it trembled “I can’t be powerless again. I can’t just stand by and let this go on any further. I told Rick that I want him dead…”

Her voice grew so high that it took him one glance at her to realise that she was threatening to burst at the seams.

“I need you to help me…”

Her body shook violently as he wrapped his arms around her, at a loss of what to say. He had just started to give this place a chance, he had tried to settle in. And even he knew that the best way forward wouldn’t be to climb into a new neighbour’s house and blow his brains out. But it had also been him who had seen Carol when Ed had still been around, had seen her cower in fear. And it had been him who had encouraged her to stand up to him. So who was he now to deny her his help?

“We gotta think this through…” he murmured quietly, placing a kiss to the crown of her head and waited until her silent sobs had subsided.


End file.
